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Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel was a superhero who protected Fawcett City, and a former member of the Justice League. History William "Billy" Batson was a young boy who, by saying the magic word "SHAZAM", became the powerful and popular crimefighter Captain Marvel. Still coming into his own as a young superhero, Billy would strive to follow the example of his favorite hero: Superman. To his credit, Captain Marvel quickly became respected and admired, both in his home of Fawcett City and beyond. He was eventually extended an invitation to join the expanded Justice League. Billy believed in fair play, taking people at their word and giving them the benefit of the doubt, an optimistic viewpoint that very often borders on naiveté (but then, he's still in grade school). He attended C.C. Binder Elementary School. Known Adventures Billy's youthful chattiness and cheerful outlook led to a misinterpreted public endorsement of Lex Luthor's candidacy for the President of the United States of America. This immediately brought him a stern reprimand from the League, and Superman in particular. Though impressed by Marvel's powers, Superman was rubbed the wrong way by Billy's seemingly simplistic sense of right and wrong. Batman noted that Captain Marvel was exceedingly "sunny". During a groundbreaking ceremony to commemorate "Lexor City", Lex Luthor's high-tech low-income housing complex of the future, Superman detected what he believed to be a destructive device far below the grounds. Despite Luthor's assurances that the machine was harmless, Superman ordered an evacuation and attempted to shut it down. Superman was opposed by Captain Marvel, and in an uncharacteristic show of frustration and anger, Superman attacked the younger hero. The battle destroyed much of Lexor City, and ended when Marvel attempted to harm Superman with his magical thunderbolt one time too many. Once Superman managed to turn the tables on Captain Marvel by causing him to be struck by his own lightning, the subsequent charge reverted him back into Billy Batson, and Superman was able to gag Billy (thus, preventing him from changing back) and destroy the device. However, Superman's accusation was proven false by the Atom, and the Man of Steel was publicly embarrassed. His humiliation was further compounded when Lex took the loss in stride before television cameras, and offered to reconstruct Lexor City out of his own pocket. Naturally, the entire situation had been purposely created by Luthor and Amanda Waller to discredit the Man of Steel; In fact, it had gone even better than they planned thanks to Captain Marvel. After the Lexor City debacle, a disillusioned Captain Marvel called a meeting of the founding members and quit the Justice League. Marvel felt that the League was sinking to their enemies' level and that they no longer acted like heroes. Powers and abilities Billy Batson, an average 10-year-old student in his secret identity, took the (approximately) 30-year-old superhuman form of Captain Marvel by speaking a magic word: "SHAZAM!" This brought a mystical thunderbolt from the sky, which transformed him into Captain Marvel and later back into Billy. His powers were a general match for Superman's, minus super hearing, heat vision and X-ray vision. In his battle with Superman, Captain Marvel demonstrated that the two are approximately equal in terms of physical abilities, although Superman actually seemed to have the upper hand for most of the fight (towards the end of the battle Captain Marvel is shown holding his left arm as though it were injured, while Superman appears uninjured, Captain Marvel was also tiring noticeably at the end and Superman also seemed to land more blows during the course of the fight). Marvel possessed a very high level of superhuman strength and was generally invulnerable; he could move and fly at incredible speeds, and had god-like stamina. He could also use the magical thunderbolt as a weapon by saying "Shazam" and then moving his target into the thunderbolt's path. This tactic allowed him to burn Superman twice before Marvel was twisted into the path of a third bolt, instantly ending the conflict by changing him back into Billy Batson. Captain Marvel's invulnerability seemed to be just short of Superman's. However unlike Superman, Marvel was vulnerable to only the most powerful of magic-based attacks (which are Superman's secondary weakness, after kryptonite). His only known weakness was to attack him in his normal form, and prevent him from saying "Shazam". Background information Captain Marvel was originally a character created by C.C. Beck of Fawcett Comics to compete directly with DC's Superman comics. Marvel debuted in Whiz Comics #2 in 1939. The character proved to be so popular that sales eventually exceeded that of the Superman comics, and in fact at one time Captain Marvel's books were the best selling comics in the world, with monthly sales in the millions at his peak; Captain Marvel was also one of the very first comic book superheroes to be depicted in the movies. However, DC claimed the character was too similar to Superman and launched a successful legal action against Fawcett that resulted in Captain Marvel's comics being cancelled. In the mid-1970s, however, DC reintroduced the character, who subsequently was also featured in a popular live-action Saturday morning series entitled Shazam. Captain Marvel was imbued with the powers of several historical and mythical figures: *'S'''olomon (wisdom) *'H'ercules (strength) *'A'tlas (stamina) *'Z'eus (power) *'A'chilles (courage) *'M'''ercury (speed) It is presumed that Captain Marvel's DCAU origin at least resembles that of the comics version: orphan Billy Batson is led to a strange underground cavern by a bizarre-looking subway train. There he meets the wizard Shazam, who grants Billy the power to fight for justice as "Captain Marvel", simply by speaking the wizard's name.